Bliis
by cannon
Summary: An alien man tells the patrons of a bar an intergalactic tale...


"Here comes ol' Fret. Anyone need to be bored into sleep?"  
  
The voice is that of the rough bartender, who speaks as the shadow of the newcomer falls over the wooden planks of the door. Some people within the bar turn to see what all the commotion is about, but the locals know better. They continue to stare into their bottles and glasses for answers that have escaped them while sober. But others, travelers who are unaware of this man Fret and his wild tales are intrigued. "Don't pay no mind to Fret, if he happens upon ya." "Don't let Fret scare ya none." "That ol' Fret... no worries about him. Just cross to the other side o' the road if'n you see 'im comin'."  
  
As the man enters, a few strangers wonder what all the commotion is about. Fret is a tall man, thin with a face as sharp as the kikare's whistle in the dead of night. His forehead drops out from a mop of dirty brown hair, slanting downward at an even angle until it reaches the sudden point of his nose. His high cheekbones and narrow jaw force his mouth into a sort of permanent pucker. His clothing is dirty and is baggy on his bony frame. He walks with a limp, his right foot dragging uselessly through the sawdust of the bar floor.  
  
He chooses his seat - as far away from the other customers as possible - and folds his lanky form into it. A woman carries a mug of red liquid from behind the bar and places it in front of him. Fret takes it and inhales half of the contents in a single swallow.  
  
"Hey, Fret!" the bartender calls. "Fret!" He shouts, as if they were on opposite ends of an open field. "Fret!"  
  
Fret takes a drink, this time draining the glass.  
  
"Leave 'im be," a man's voice comes from the back of the bar. Fret himself pays no attention.  
  
"I just wanna hear 'im tell 'is story. There's people here who've never heard it a'fore."  
  
Fret turns and scans the room, although he seems to simply be in search of a refill. He makes no indication that he had heard the barkeep's request. Finally, his picks up his glass and carries it to the bar. "Drink," he says in a raspy, sandpaper voice. The bartender fills the mug with the same frothy mix and Fret slowly carries it back to his table.  
  
"What story?" a stranger asks, leaning against the bar.  
  
"Now you've done it," a local mutters.  
  
Fret downs his entire drink in a single swallow. "Story. Story. It ain't no story and I ain't no freak. I won't be laughed at in a bar in me own town." He puts the glass down on the floor and kicks it over with his left foot. "I'll do me drinkin' in peace somewhere else."  
  
The stranger - a man with a fine linen coat - steps forward. "Pardon, Fret. But I am not interested in laughing at you." He produces as if from nowhere a small pad of paper and a closed leather billfold. "My name is Haraso. I am a chronicler. I... would be most interested in hearing your story."  
  
Fret turns and scans the crowd, this time taking a moment to count the number of people present. "I won't be laughed at."  
  
"Gods forbid. You have my word, on the name of our god."  
  
The bartender laughs. "You swear on the name of god, son, you'll be especially int'rested in this tale."  
  
Fret adjusts his dirty coat and runs a talon-like hand through his dirty hair. "I s'ppose I won't get outta here until you've all heard your blasted story. Fine then. But I won't be laughed at. I won't." He returned to his seat and slapped the table with his thin fingers. "Drink!" The same woman as before refills his glass and carries it to him. He doesn't taste it immediately, pushes it to one side and rests his hands on his thin stomach.  
  
"Was four eccs ago, about when it happened. You're knowing of the big... ring outside of this town?"  
  
Haraso nods. "The Bliis Ring, named for this town in which we sit. What of it?"  
  
"The ring, which is no called the Bliis Ring, plays a heavy part in this story." He sniffed, one wide nostril flaring before he began his story. "Four eccs ago, I was walking meself along the banks of the Kuv. This was a'fore me leg gave up on me, y'un'stand, but I was sufferin' through a horrible bout with some kinda inner bug. It was turnin' me insides into mush and causin' me to loose sleep. But I had to get to a proper fishin' hole. Me purpose for that morning was to catch food for me family to eat on for the night. It was hard times and we was eatin' only when we could catch our dinner. I was a long ways from home when I arrived at the ring.  
  
"First, I was thinking I wasn't in me right mind. But a splash of water from the Kuv on me face and a light pinch to me upper arm told me that I was seein' what I was seein'. The ring was alive! It was dancin' wif all kindsa bright colors... reds, whites, blues... I hurried up to it, wonderin' how water would stand like that when... when this monstrosity came through! It was evil, I know that to be for a fact! It walked on six round legs and hummed like... like nothing I ever have heard a'fore or since! I throwed me fishin' stick at it, but the thing didn't even budge.  
  
"It only had one eye, this monster from the standing water. It turned and looked at me with a cold stare that turned me insides to ice. I wanted to run, but I din' think no one would believe me wifout proof."  
  
Someone at the bar scoffs and the bartender slaps him lightly with his dishtowel. Fret hardly notices the interruption. By this point, no one else in the bar is speaking, all rapt as Fret tells his story once again.  
  
"So I walks up to this monster and I tells it that I'm just gonna take a little bit. Just so no one laughs at me. So I grab this big part of it, this thing stickin' off the top like the neck of a tesset. There's a claw on the end--" he forms it with his own hand, "--so I pull that off. I was jest 'bout to leave when this thing talks! It talks just clear's day to me, in a voice like anyone in this here bar. Without nothing like no mouth or nothing, it just says 'Hello.' Real simple-like. And I say hello right back, bein' a droggin' fool. It tells me that it's name's Denul'jeq'sin and it asks me to not take the 'pincer.' That's the word it used, right there. Pincer.  
  
"I'm 'bout to run for town when Denul'jeq'sin tells me to stay where I am, please, and he would come see me. Now, I think not. But that walla water come a-crashing down and wherever this thing comes from, it ain't goin' back. So's I try to talk to it. But see, Denul-whatever, he don't wanna talk no more. Here I was sittin' in front'a this thing and it ain't even speakin' no more. So I tries to talk some more. I thinks I hurt it's feeling.  
  
"Finally, I picks up me stick and say 'good-bye to you,' and start to walkin'. Well, that musta made Denul'jeq'sin very, very mad. Coz as soon as I turn me back onna Ring, it starts a-shakin' and a-roarin' somethin' awful. And I just stood there, scared to me very bones as I watch the standing water come back. I'm a-thinkin' I'm goin' drown in this thing, but it just stands there and out come four of the... the normalest-lookin' folk I ever seen. 'Cepting their clothes, 'course.  
  
"One of the folks comes walkin' up and he tells me that ihe/i is Denul'jeq'sin. I say no, no, that thing over dere is Denul'jeq'sin. The old one with round, black eyes makes a sound like a laugh and shakes his gray head. So, right now, I'm thinking that these people is with our god, Osiris, coz of their using the Bliis ring and all. Plus, they's got a Jaffa wit' 'em. He was standing and lookin' 'round like all them Jaffa fellas do.  
  
"But in 'dition to that... oh, m'lordy, fellas, these three men was a-travelin' with one of the most beautifulest women I have ever hads the chance to look at. Her hair was as golden as the sun and when she smiled..." He smiles, his thin lips pulling apart over his yellow teeth as he recalls the beautiful woman from that day. "She was a goddess, m'friends and gentlemen. Sent from Osiris hisself to see what we was all doin' here. Or so I thought. I tells them that we're faithful to Osiris, coz Denul'jeq'sin asked.  
  
"Gray Head said somethin' that I never did hear and the others looked mighty nervous to be in this place. So I asks them what's wrong. Denul'jeq'sin says nothin' and then looks at me. He says I look like a sick man and I says yessir, you got that on the mark. The Goddess comes and she checks me with some stuff she's got in her pouch and says that I am very unwell. I'm thinkin' she's some kinda mystic or - or soothsayer. She telled me that I was goin' die and was goin' die soon if I didn' get somethin' called medic ultenshiuon. So I says to her to give it to me. I ain't no weak man, but me family was accountin' on me fer food.  
  
"I tells them I know I was sick. They just looks at me. So I gets down on me knees." He demonstrates in the bar, folding his hands in prayer. "I begs of you. If you can help me, then do it, please. Me family needs food. I tells them all this. The Goddess, finally she takes pity on me and she call the Gray Head Sir. 'Sir,' she tol' him, 'we could koranteen him on the base and we kin have Janit look 'im over. No harm in helping 'im.'  
  
"Denul'jeq'sin agrees wit' her and Sir puts his hands on his hips. I wonders why the Goddess weren't in charge, but that ain't me business to wonder 'bout. Finally, Sir tells the Jaffa (he calls him Teelk) to 'dial home.' So Teelk goes over to that big ol' thing with the red bauble in de middle and he starts pushing buttons. Well, I'll be thrown if that wall o' water didn' show up again! Sir looks at me and says he'll come back with somethin' called a 'soot' and he tells 'Denul' and the Goddess, who he calls 'Kartir', to wait wit' me for 'im to return."  
  
At this point in the story, he stops and takes a long swig of his drink. A chair scoots across the floor, but it's unclear whether it's moving towards or away from the storyteller. When Fret sets his empty glass down, he stares at the foggy glass for a moment before continuing.  
  
"Kartir and Denul did stay with me. I tried ta talk to 'em, but they wanted to stay away from me. Can't say as I blame 'em... Had the sickness, after all. Kartir takes this stuff outta the pouches on her leg coverings - she called 'em pockets - and starts to cleaning her hands. Awful-lookin' stuff, too. She puts somethin' on over her hands, too. Somethin'... I dunno. Like a second-skin or somethin'. I see Denul doin' the same thing to his own hands. Guess they din' wanna catch whatever I had.  
  
"After a while, Sir and Teelk come back through the standing wall of water and they's wearin' different clothes. They's dressed in a color like the sun or like in Kartir's hair with big heavy things over they's faces. Sir's got 'nother outfit and he tells me to put it on. He tells Kartir that somethin' or other has all been set up and Hemind has agreed to something. They was all lookin' at me like I's some kind of... kind of attraction." He shakes his head angrily.  
  
"Sir 'dials' and the ring comes alive again. By now, it ain't so scary no more and I'm even startin' to get used to it. But then they puts their hands on me and they start tryin' to take me through wit'em. I say uh-uh, no way I'm goin' through that thing. Nuh-uh. Denul tells me that the Stargate - that's what he called it, a Stargate - was very safe. So I looks at Kartir and she's nodding, and I figure that someone so beautiful wouldn't lie..."  
  
Someone laughs, "He ain't never met my betrothed!"  
  
Fret continued, unaware or indifferent of his interruption. "I steps through. And let me tell ya, I have felt cold. I have been in the fields during first chill and I have felt ice in me skin. But that ain't nothin' compared to what I felt at that very moment. Like I had been frozen to me very core." He shudders. "I come through on the other side and they's this mist... like a big, heavy cloud that took away me eyes for a little while. I felt like I had been lied to and this was a trap... but then I saw what was on the other side of that ring."  
  
He leans back in his chair and lets out a low, long whistle. Haraso, the chronicler, nods. "Yes? What world is this?" The bartender scoffs and shakes his head as he continues to wipe down his bar. He won't stop the story; as long as Fret tells it, people will drink. And as long as people drink, the bar's coffers will be filled.  
  
"This world," Fret says quietly. "This world... is... amazing. I don't know that I got the words to tell you all what a place I discovered." He stands, holding his hands out as if framing a picture. "Walls... that rise higher than any building in our town. Gray walls with yellow wording. Strange words: Denul tol' me they sayed 'Caution' and 'Stand Clear', but he din't tell me what that mean. Huge blocks of glass embedded in the walls like windows; showing huge machines that were filled with magical lights! Hundreds - yes, hundreds! - of people!  
  
"I was taken down a long corridor by Sir and Teelk. Kartir and Denul had to go to a place called Dee-kon. They stood on either side of me, then led me into a tiny room. It was near the size of one of Juna's maiven squares," he winks at the audience and a few of the betrothed men blush. Juna is a well-known mistress of the night and, though none would admit it, the majority of the men present knew exactly how big the tiny room was. When Fret began speaking again, his voice was hushed to a whisper.  
  
"Sir and Teelk closed the doors... and I stand between them." He straightened his back and pinned both arms to his sides. "Then, the room ilurches/i! And I try not to look frightened, but I am! Oh, they know they have me in the palm of they hands now! The room stops and the doors open... but we are someplace else! While standing in the tiny room, I have been moved somewhere! This is where I begin to panic. I am not too proud to admit that I felt a shudder in me heart as I wondered who these people really were.  
  
"I didn't wanna go, but Sir prodded me and grunted something. Teelk put a hand under me arm and nearly pulled me from the little room. Ooh, a strong one, he was! I din' try to fight, for I knew it would be a short an' losin' battle. They taked me to a larger room, one filled with pallets meant for sleep. Sir takes me to this tiny woman, a woman no higher dan dis!" He holds his hand up to his waist and a few people chuckle. The woman alien's height changes every time the story is told; before long, she would be no higher than a rug-mite. "Sir tells this tiny of a woman that I'm the 'alien' and that I got a sickness.  
  
"The woman looks at me through the glass of the helmet - I had been wearin' the helmet since I put on the suit Sir brought for me, have I mentioned that? - and she tells Sir to take me inta one of tha koranteen rooms. So Sir and Teelk take me to this big white room and they put me inside. I gots a bed, a little pot to do me business and a winder that looks out inta tha little woman's world. She runnin' around, doin' stuff to people layin' in beds and I wanna tell her to let those people sleep.  
  
"Then, I wonder... why? Why they put me in here? I ain't sleepy! I just woked up when all this started happenin' and I ain't about to start noddin' off right then. So when she fin'ly comes in, I tell her that I ain't koranteen - I'm guessin' that's they word for sleepy - and I don' need to koranteen. She look at me ireal/i serious-like and says that it's fer 'they protection.' Like how's me sleepin' goin' help them? But she take me to tha bed and she lay me down. She lay me down and tell me she be right back just soon as she can.  
  
"Outside, I see Kartir and Denul. They's hair's all pushed down 'gainst they head and they skin look very pink. They wearing new clothes, too... big blue things, coverin' they whole bodies. Kartir crossed her arms and looked at the little woman very closely. Denul goes to this hole in the wall and he talks to me through it. He ask how am I. So I tell him. I tell 'im I ain't koranteen and I don't need ta, but he just look at Kartir like he don' understand. Then, Denul tell me that Dacter'freyshur will just be runnin' something on me. Tests he says. Not hurt a bit.  
  
"So I guessin' the little woman is Dacter'freyshur. Back home, when Kartir was talkin', she said somethin' 'bout Janit. Janit'dacter'freyshur? I go to the hole in the wall and I say what do I call her? But Denul doesn't answer. I ask again and he see me, but he point at his ear like he don't wanna hear me. Then, he says through the hole I gotta hold down a li'l button to talk. So I see dis button and push it and I ask watta I call the little woman.  
  
"Kartir laughs a little and she cover her mouth to hide it, but the little woman is not very nice-looking now. She looks mad at me and Denul says to call her Janit. Kartir puts her hand on Janit's shoulder and shakes her head like she sayin' she sorry. Janit shrugs and pats Sam on the hand and says somethin' I can't hear coz Denul ain't holdin' down his button for me. Janit say good-bye to Kartir and Denul and then puts on some long things over her hands. She wraps up her hair and then she puts on a blue suit that covers her whole little body.  
  
"Then she come into the koranteen place. She say she just wanna run some tests on me blood and I tells her I don't think I gots any blood. She laughs real quiet and says blood's in everyone. She picks up this long sharp thing and she says she won't take too much, but it gonna hurt. And she does it and .... hoo, boy, do it hurt!" He stamps his good foot against the floor and shakes his head at the memory. "Minds me of when I had that hook stuck'n me thigh. She fill this little glass thing wit' my tew - or blood, which is what they call it - and she tell me she'll be back soon.  
  
"And they leave me 'lone. All by my lonesome in this big ol' white room. And I wan' Kartir or Denul or Sir or even Teelk to talk to coz it's just so quiet. And I thinka my betrothed at home. How she waitin' to see if we kin eat dinner. 'Bout my kids waitin' for their paw-paw. And I wanna get outta there! I wanna get outta there ibad/i! So I start to look for the door. The way that Janit went out. But I can't find it!  
  
"After a long time, Denul comes back. He ask my name and I tell him that my name, sir, is Fret. I tells him all about living in Bliis and he calls our worl' P64-210 and I think that is just... ridiculous." He coughs and takes a drink of his ale, then drops the glass back to the table. It wobbles a bit, then settles in time for a woman to fill it with another round. The bartender adds a mark to Fret's total. "Denul and I talk. And he say that Osiris is jest a false god. An evil... alien person... who's jest pur-tending to be a god so that she can makes us into slaves.  
  
"I been thinking lots about what Denul said to me that day four eccs ago and I believe he is right. I din' wanna believe him then, though. We was still talkin' when Janit comes back with my blood and she looks happy. She tells Denul that I have a minor buctoriel... bacteriall... baktural... somethin' insect-shun. Infect..." He rubs his temples and shakes his head. "They's gots lots of weird words out there..." He laughs, then coughs violently.  
  
"Anyway... Janit has this other long pointy thing and she says that it'll help me. She calls 'em anti bodies. And I tells her that I don't wan' nothin' that'll hurt my body. And she just laughs and says it's help. Denul tells me it's okay and she stabs me again and it hurts just as bad goin' in as it do comin' out, lemme tell you what. She says I need a little bedrest and that'd be that and I could go home again. So I just lay down and I decide that a little koranteen wouldn't be too bad. So I went to sleep.  
  
"When I waked up, all the pain in my body was gone. I felt like I had grown a second body. Denul, Kartir, Teelk and Sir came and they taked me back to the Stargate. I telled Denul that I had been lookin' fer food when I saw the Stargate and Sir disappeared wit' Kartir somewhere. When we was at the Stargate waitin' to go home, Kartir and Sir camed back with big ol' bag fulla meat, green things and white drink that tastes delicious. My family ate like kings for that week. I ask Denul if he'll stay on Bliis to 'splore, which is what he say they do. But Denul say that Bliis is far too primitive to provide much help in way of tech... tek... teknu-legical." He coughs and runs a hand through his hair. "He tells me that Osiris and all the other Goold are false gods and we shouldn't worship dem no more. So that's why I keep tellin' the story. I tell the story coz I think Denul and Kartir were right 'bout 'Siris." He takes a long drink, draining his glass one final time before fighting his way to his feet.  
  
"They bring me back here and Denul says he'd like to come back sometime. Someday. I tells him I'd be glad to meet him when he come. So there's the story." He holds his hands out as if displaying a painting on the ground. "Believe me if you wanna. Or, if you don' wanna, that'd be fine too." He tips his head to the bartender. "I'll compensate you next time. If you will pardon me, my peers." He moves from the bar with his slow, loping gait and eventually disappears through the double-doors.  
  
When the sounds of his shuffling step can no longer be heard, a few of the patrons allow themselves laughter. "Goin' through the ring? To other worlds? Gutter-all!"  
  
Haraso snaps the lid on his stylus and leans forward. "And yet, imagine if it is true!"  
  
"True!" the bartender snaps, shaking his head from side to side. "Upon hearin' that story fer the first time, I went out like a fool and pressed button after button on that pedestal in front of the Bliis Ring and ya know what I got fer my trouble? Nothing! Fret's tale is nothing but utter and complete gutter-all!"  
  
"You may be correct, kind sir," Haraso says, gathering his things quickly. "But I must lend the same amount of credence to Fret. For I have known him just as long as I have known you, sir." He slings his satchel over his shoulder and says, "I shall print the tale in the next printing of the news. I expect that all open-minded folk shall flock to the Bliis Ring to begin attempting to open it. Imagine the possibilities!" He bids the patrons of the bar good-night and slips into the darkness.  
  
The bartender purses his lips and pulls a pad from underneath the bar. Using the tip of a charcoal, he quickly scrawls down an idea before it can die of loneliness in his head: "Dial the Bliis Ring, Ten Shells for Ten Digits. Open the Ring, Win a Prize!" He smiles and, after a moment, crosses out Ten Shells to replace it with Twenty Shells. "Imagine the possibilities, indeed." He chuckles. Then, seeing that Fret's spell had been broken, he went back to the business of pouring drinks.  
  
End 


End file.
